Last week it was Diego Maradona’s 51st birthday, and that brought up in me, the need to analyse the question raised on the title of this blog.
No doubts Maradona is one of the best players of all time.
Why do I say “one” of the best and not “the” best?
Because I do not want to make any decisions based on what my heart tells me. I want to reach that conclusion based on facts.
Yes, I have my opinion, but I got there not only giving the candidates a ball and see what they can do with it.
I reached it by analysing careers, seeing the influence these players had on the teams they have played for, the quality of their team mates at any team they have played for, and only then see what they can do with the ball or in their position of play.
Other things that did not cut it with me, in order to decide, were entering in the argument of “ but such and such never played in Europe” or who was a better header of the ball or took better free kicks.
So if we start with influence, Neither Pele’s Santos or the Napoli of Maradona were able to recreate any of their form without them on their team.
Diego’s influence on Argentinos Juniors was such, that the money raised from selling him, enable the club to build the best team they ever had. They won everything with that team, showing a player’s influence even after they have left a club.
The Boca Juniors of Maradona, were crown champions, but we must admit he was surrounded by a highly talented group of players there.
His time at Barcelona was marred first by a bout of Hepatitis and then cut short by a criminal tackle by Athletico Bilbao’s Goicoxea, that broke his leg in two.
Barcelona, bought Maradona for a then world record fee, later beaten by Napoli when they bought……Maradona.
At the different levels with the national side Diego has had an amazing influence too.
In the under 21’s world cup in 1979 in Japan, almost single handedly, he tood his nation to the title. It was a fairly solid team, with some good players, but only 2 of them were world class Maradona and Ramon Diaz. Diaz scored a lots of goals, but it was the number 10 who carried the team on his shoulders, even been crowned the best player of the tournament by unanimous decision.
His first WC with the senior side came in Spain 82. There, not even his natural ability, was enough to help an old team, highly unmotivated by the recent Falkland war, to retain the title they won in 78.
He reached his footballing maturity by the time Mexico 86 arrived. There Maradona was at his best, taking a mediocre to passable side to world champions, playing scintillating football from beginning to end of the competition.
His moment of glory came when he scored the best goal ever scored in a world cup against non other than England in the quarter finals.
When Italy 90 arrived, there were doubts. Diego had an injury in one leg (that no doubt would have kept Pele out of the tournament), but he begged to be picked and play.
That he did, and again took his country to the final game where West Germany were just that bit better and took the crown of the South Americans.
But maybe the greatest show of his influence would come in Usa 94. He had recently returned to help Argentina qualify for the tournament by narrowly beating Australia in the play offs. He had been suspended for failing a drug test, and his suspension had finished on time for him to participate on those two games.
Argentina started their group matches in great form, conducted by an inspired Maradona, and easily qualified for the next round.
When news of a failed doping test were corroborated and he was sent home, the moral was so low that the team were beaten and eliminated on the second round.
Pele’s Santos won every title either domestically or internationally. He was always surrounded by amazing players, but in fairness he played week in and week out against incredible guys as well.
In the 60’s his team Santos won every Paulista championship with exception of the 1963 edition (won by Sao Paulo)
It sounds really few lines to describe his club career, but he played there for the whole of his palying days ( I am not even going to count his return for Cosmos, just as I did not count maradona’s return for Sevilla, Newell’s old Boys and Boca Juniors second spell).
With the National side Pele achieved 3 world titles of the 4 he took part on. But none of his team mates in any of those editions were mediocre or even just good. They were all of real quality and talent.
In fact in Chile 62 O Re missed most of the final instances and Brazil won the title anyway. A thing Argentina would not have done in 86 without his talisman player.
Also the game started to change on the early 60’s outside of Brazil. Many teams found that the only way to counter the great brazilian teams were to use negative tactics, marking much closer and resorting to violent fould if required.
Pele had problems with this type of tactics, and was not so bright in Chile 62 and England 66 (must be said that the Portuguese were excessively violent and the referee was not too keen to punish them)
FIFA, rightly so, started to take measures to combat violent marking and by the time Mexico 70 arrived and with more much space to show his ability Pele shone again and Brazil were once again champions.
He scored over 1200 goals throughout his career, showing amazing influence for his teams.
No point comparing ball ability between Pele and Maradona, as one did some things better than the other, but the opposite was also true.
There are also those who claim that Alfredo Di Stefano was better than the two above mentions or at least goes sandwiched in between them. His amazing record and influence in all teams he played for (not only Real Madrid) make a good point for those who place him there.
Johan Cruyf, Franz Beckenbauer, Zinedine Zidane, Ferenc Puskas, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and few others deserve to be mentioned also, but they are one or in some cases two or three steps behind the “big 3”
In any case football players are very much like wine. They apply differently to an individual’s palate, same players create different opinions and we are all right and will defend our choice till the end.